It wasn't long before I discovered that getting to the surface would be no simple task.

The cavern that I 'spawned' in seemed to be the smallest and least complex to navigate. The further I went, the longer it took for me to find the exit of each individual cavern.

It was silent, save for the tiny sounds of my skeletal footfall.

"This is Gorg's Tomb", Hanna said, expelling the silence, "A cave system not usually explored because of, you guessed it, its sheer size and complexity. There are rumors that it holds vast treasures in its depths, but any young fool stupid enough to look into those rumors has never returned."

As soon as she finished speaking, I reached the exit of yet another cavern. I paused as I did so, sensing that something was amiss.

Peering around the corner, I found out why: the cavern was connected to a corridor that seemingly stretched into infinity both directions. It seemed as if the caverns that I was traversing were just another section of Gorg's Tomb, as there seemed to be entry-ways upon entry-ways along the corridor.

Glancing from left to right, I pondered which way I should go.

'... Might as well follow the left-hand rule', I decided.

As I travelled down the corridor, I noted something eerie: some of the entry-ways seemed clean cut, unnaturally so.

"Seems as if I'm not the first one here", I said with trepidation.

Still out of sight, Hanna hummed in confirmation.

'Could this damn pixie help out a little?', I grumbled.

Suddenly, I had a powerful premonition of danger. I leaped into the closest corrider as quietly and quickly as I could manage.

I had barely landed in a crouching position when I heard the shuffling of fabric just up ahead. Barely leaning from my position, I peeked out at the source of the noise.

Luckily, it had entered the corridor with its back to me. It was a short, hunched humanoid colored a snot green and splotched here and there with a mottled brown. Its arms were elongated, reaching all the way down to its shins. Its long, greasy black hair obscured the majority of its face, save for its glittering brown eyes. The loincloth it wore, if you could call it that, wasn't hiding anything. It was clearly a male.

It was holding a dimly glowing blue crystal, about one inch wide, with its disturbingly long fingers as it shuffled down the corridor.

'Good. It relies on artificial lighting', I thought, 'I can probably get behind him without any trouble.'

"Hey, Gray", Hanna whispered urgently, "This is probably a good time to use a skill. Just think of the word 'skills' and the screen will pop up. Don't worry, it's only visible to you and me."

Skills

Skills

Darkvision (Passive) Lv. 7

You may see in low-light areas.

Favor (Passive) Lv. 0

?

Scrying (Active) Lv. 1

Observe a living being's position in the World Tree.

All attributes are visible if target is at most 1 level higher than you. Higher leveled targets reduce detail.

Scrying (Passive) Max level

Your eyes are opened.

Saving the other (more confusing) skills for later, I quickly used Scrying on the creature.

Shorna  Level 3 Hobgoblin Alignment Evil PVE Aggressive Class Laborer Titles N/A Sub-Class N/A Fame -5 Attributes Physical ( x0.5 ) Mental ( x0.5 ) Agility 7 (3) Charisma 0 (0) Strength 6 (3) Intelligence 2 (1) Endurance 4 (2) Wisdom 3 (1)

'Why are its attributes so low? Is it supposed to be some kind of minion-type?', I thought, confused.

Shrugging the questions off for later, I crept low to the ground behind the hobgoblin, just barely faster than its pace.

I had to adjust the normal way I sneaked to suit my skeletal feet. Rather than distributing my whole weight evenly along a sole and transitioning feet smoothly, I relied on shifting my weight from big toe, to pinkie toe, to heel at varying intervals.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

It took a few minutes, but I finally caught up to it.

'God, it stinks', I thought, 'But that confirms that I can still smell.'

Close up, I saw that the hobgoblin stood at a little under five feet tall, hunched over and emaciated from lack of nutrition. Its ribs were clearly visible and I could tell the look of ravenous hunger in its eyes, universal amongst species.

Alongside its meager stats, that convinced me that I was more than capable of killing it.

Resolving myself to action, I pounced forward.

I swept my leg low, solidly connecting with the back of its knees. As it fell, forced into a kneeling position, I clasped my right hand over its mouth and left behind its neck.

It didn't even get a chance to grunt in pain.

"Do not scream, Hobgoblin", I whispered menacingly, "Or you will taste death... nod if you can understand."

After a tense moment, it begrudgingly did so.

"Good", I said, no less malice in my voice, "Answer one question and I will free you: where are you going?"

I loosened my grip just slightly in order for it to respond.

"T.. the Chieftain's cave, master", it said, cowed into submission, "It is the seventh cave from here."

'So, these beasts are ordered into some kind of governance?', I pondered, 'Interesting...'

I had almost drifted off into thought when the hobgoblin I still had in my grip shifted nervously, snapping me from my reverie.

'Oh yes', I remembered, unpleasantly, '...you.'

Redoubling my grip, I snapped its neck.

The sudden crack resounded loudly for a moment before silence once again fell. I let the body go, and watched as it crumpled forward and landed on the stone floor with an audible thump.

Its neck, twisted 120 degrees clockwise, forced its face towards me, displaying disgusting features, worsened by its expression of terror. In particular, I hated how large and crooked its nose was.

"... I thought you said you would free him", Hanna said with an edge of fear.

Wordlessly, I slung the body over my shoulder and, after inspecting the cavern it came from, tossed it behind some stalagmites. There was nothing valuable to take from it. The glowing gem would compromise my position and I had no way to store it.

Some boxes popped up immediately after I killed it and, only after checking my immediate area for threats, I read them.

You have slain a monster two levels higher than you!

+100% Experience

Level up!

+1 to all stats

Currently Unassigned Points: 6

You have learned Sneak (Active)!

Muffling noise and hiding your presence can be very rewarding. Attacking while hidden will lead to a critical hit. Higher levels will allow for a greater degree of stealth.

*Increases Agility with effective usage

You have learned Fear (Active)!

You can now produce an aura of terror around you. Higher levels allow for a larger radius and stronger effect.

*Increases Charisma with effective usage

Most of that was good news, but I still had a problem.

"Hanna, is there some way for me to disable stat gains associated with skills?", I asked.

She didn't answer.

"Hanna, answer me", I calmly said.

".. You didn't answer me before", Hanna said, audibly angry, "You said you would free him!"

I shook my head.

'Figures', I thought, 'I have to explain myself to something a preteen girl would doodle.'

"Gray!", she shouted.

I looked over at exactly where her voice originated from. A small shimmer in the air was my response, a pixie-shaped shimmer.

"I did free it. You saw it just as well as I did, Hanna. It was starving and exhausted. At most, it would have lived a week. A horribly painful and slow week. Death was inevitable either way. By my hand or by nature's.

Even if I did lie, it was to ease its mind before its death. Is that so evil?", I asked evenly.

It was quiet for a long time as we stared each other down.

Finally dropping her camouflauge, Hanna looked at me warily before saying, "Okay, fine Gray, I believe you. But what you really need to convince is the World Tree. Actions that can be construed as evil can shift alignments."

"Actually, that's not quite the case", I countered, "Only in Good's alignment description did it specify that Evil actions cause alignment shifts. Once you're Evil or Neutral, you stay that alignment for life. Now, can you disable stat gains associated with skills or not?"

Hanna blinked in shock. "Um, yes you can", she said, digesting the new information, "Skills increase that specific stat because the higher that stat is multiplied by your skill level is how effective the skill is overall. Like the higher your Charisma is, the better you'll do when using the Barter skill. Here, I'll set it so that you'll receive unassigned points instead on skills."

"Good", I said.

Immediately, I poured all of my unassigned points into Charisma, for a total of 8 after the level up.

'Not much longer before they're all equal and I can enjoy that 10% bonus', I thought excitedly.

If that minion was any measure to the strength of the monsters in Gorg's Tomb, then one of two things was the case: there would be an overwhelming amount of weakling mobs or a steady progression of increasingly powerful but few mobs. From my gaming experience, I was leaning toward the second.

'Damn, I really need to get stronger, either way', I strategized, 'I want to make it out of here, but I want to leave in one piece. As it stands right now, I'm probably not ready to face this Chieftain.'

Immediately, I activated Sneak and started to scout out the adjacent caverns from my position, taking care not to get lost.

Other than earning a level in Sneak and an unassigned point (promptly put to Charisma), it was entirely uneventful. What was probably minutes felt like hours.

I was getting bored of the constant sight of bleak gray cave-wall.

'Hmm, just one level in Sneak has made me noticeably quieter. Maybe... maybe I can scout out the Chieftain's cave. If anything goes wrong I can just activate Fear and bolt', I considered.

Eventually curiosity won out over self-preservation and I slowly inched toward the largest entry-way, both excited and wary.

As I came closer with each step, I began to hear the dull clank of iron against stone more and more often until I was right at the entrance and the noise was almost unbearable.

I peered in.

The cavern was the largest I had ever seen, in the game or not. Three, maybe four football fields in area, its height was twice that. And it wasn't empty.

There were thousands, tens of thousands of hobgoblins mining away at all the walls, except for the wall that lined the corridor. They even had rudimentary scaffolding, allowing them to chip away at even the highest of areas. 

The massive loads of rock were immediately collected and carted up by gargantuan sickly-yellow humanoids. The shortest one dwarfed a hobgoblin by seven feet. Their biceps were as wide as a tree trunk, easily hefting tons upon tons of stone into massive wheelbarrows. With each step, they produced a heavy rumble, adding to the clamorous din. They were bald and had dangerously sharp tusks. Overall, there were a few score of them.

The giants dropped the loads of rock into a gaping pit in the center of the room. No matter how much was tossed down, it didn't seem to fill up at all. Even with my Darkvision, I couldn't see the bottom of it.

...

"And this is the tutorial?", I asked dryly.